September 28, 2010 · 10:31 am

A Method of Achieving KCHGA with Tarot Divination

When the pupil is ready, the Guru appears.

Traditional

Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

Luke 12:40 (KJV)

“KCHGA” (“Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel”), refers mainly to the high-point of the Abramelin Operation, which Crowley decreed was the central task of an Adept in his system of Thelema. Since then it has taken on a sort of mythical quality amongst magicians, both Crowleyan and non-Crowleyan, who take it to be the quest for knowledge of the higher self, when in fact a closer reading of mediaeval grimoires such as Abramelin, the Lesser Key of Solomon, et al, would in fact suggest it is no such thing. In grimoire magick, a “Holy Guardian Angel” was a being that one evoked to come and become the Guardian of the Crystal Ball or scrying medium that one would use in subsequent operations to contact other spirits. The Holy Guardian Angel would thus ensure that only the spirit asked for would appear, and that it would speak the truth when it did so. The “Holy Guardian Angel” of traditional grimoire magick is thus what a Medium would refer to as a “Spirit Guide,” though it would be inaccurate to think of it as ones Higher Self per se.

But I digress.

Despite Crowley’s mangling of terminology, KCHGA is nevertheless a convenient metaphor for the quest for the higher self: one could argue that it has virtually become synonymous with the same through persistence of usage over the past hundred years. In identifying the “Holy Guardian Angel” with the Higher Self, Crowley just about associated it with the concept of the “Guru” or inner teacher of eastern tradition. The real meaning of “Guru” does not necessarily refer to any of the supposedly enlightened humans calling themselves Gurus. An authentic Guru can be identified by two characteristics: firstly – they lead the chela (pupil) from darkness to light; and secondly (and most importantly), the Guru takes karmic responsibility for the fate of his or her Chelas. It will thus be appreciated that probably 99% or more of those people referred to as Gurus are not in fact Gurus per se, but “pundits” who have been accorded the title of Guru out of courtesy. More importantly, however, a true Guru may or may not be an incarnate human being, but it is also believed “the Guru” may also be a discarnate being – i.e. like the “Holy Guardian Angel.”

Which leads on to the main subject of this essay – a practical method for attaining KCGHA, knowledge of the Higher Self, the Guru, the Christ-consciousness, etc. Arm yourself with a decent deck of Tarot cards, and do a Divination in the traditional manner, based upon the following very specific question:

“How shall I make myself ready to receive knowledge of my higher self?”

(NB: note how this is phrased – this will be explained momentarily).

The Divination will provide a set of answers which will be a list of practical things for you to do to be getting on with, such as putting your life in order, concentrating on one thing and not on another, etc. Then basically you go and do all of this. The meaning of a Tarot Divination can be cross-checked by making a note of the time, date and place upon which you performed it, and then verifying it with Horary Astrology.

When you think you have done everything your divination has indicated, you may then perform another divination: “How shall I now make myself ready to receive knowledge of my higher self?” – and then repeating the process, performing further divinations subsequently as appropriate.

The reason it is phrased “How shall I make myself ready to receive knowledge of the higher self?” and not “How shall I seek the Higher Self?” or even “How shall I find the Higher Self?” is because there is hidden significance in the old saying “When the pupil is ready, the Guru appears.” One does not “find” the Guru by seeking after him / her / it, but my making oneself ready to receive the Guru’s teachings. The Guru, like the Higher Self, is a spiritual force which is not sought after, because you ought already to know where it is waiting to be found – i.e. Within. The saying “when the pupil is ready the Guru appears” is really saying that instead of concentrating on seeking the Guru, the pupil should concentrate on making him- or herself ready for the Guru. And eventually, when the time is right, the Guru / Higher Self / etc appears, often unexpectedly, like a thief in the night.

Imagine the converse of this argument: if you travelled all the way to find to India to find a Guru, but were not ready to receive their teachings when you got there, you would have wasted your journey. Likewise, if you purport to undertake a spiritual quest, like the Abramelin operation, but fail to prepare for what is going to happen when the HGA finally does appear, the results could be disastrous.

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September 23, 2010 · 8:39 am

PVS Research (Telepathy?) Latest

Further developments in the field of “Permanent Vegetative State” Research have been reported today. Apparently results comparable to those achieved by the use of an fMRI scanner (which is so big it takes up the size of a room) have been duplicated on a much smaller and more portable Electro-encephalograph (EEG) machine.

I speculated back in February that the use of fMRI scanners in PVS research could point the way to the development of artificial telepathy. The quality of communication using both the fMRI scanner and the EEG is still only the telepathic equivalent of Morse Code, but at least the new development means that it would be cheaper and more convenient. As I reported earlier this month, the only other way to achieve a more sophisticated form of artificial telepathy at the moment is through using invasive brain surgery.

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September 20, 2010 · 9:49 am

The Astrology of the Pope’s Visit To Britain – Follow-up

Judging from the press coverage, most of the trip appears to have gone smoothly. I was predicting a major incident of controversy: the most controversial incident reported was that on the first day, Il Papa rather unkindly pointed out that it was atheist extremism which caused the atrocities of World War II, which apparently upset a lot of people like Richard Dawkins (probably because they realised they can’t keep going on about the wars fought in the name of religion anymore!). I’m surprised these militant atheists didn’t try to complain that the Pope had Godwinized the debate, as that’s the level of incisive rhetoric to which they usually ascend.

Accidents: none which were reported in the press. The nearest we got to one was prevented when the police arrested a gang of street cleaners who were allegedly plotting to assassinate the Pope.

Because my analysis was mainly based on the slow-moving planets, I calculate that the margin for error is approximately three months. That is to say: if the events predicted happen within the next three months, it is just about possible to say they were astrologically indicated, even though they did not occur within the time of the visit itself. If however nothing such happens between now and Christmas, we can reasonably say that Astrology failed to work on this occasion. Either that or the Holy Father read my blog and took steps to avert the omens.

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September 19, 2010 · 11:03 am

Golden Dawn Manuscripts and Where Not To Find Them

As promised here is a follow-up to my post Golden Dawn Manuscripts and Where to Find Them, which I wrote a month or so ago.

Recently I had the very great privilege of inspecting a hitherto unknown cache of Golden Dawn documents, dating from 1893 to 1916. It was a veritable treasure trove – easily comparable to anything owned by Bob Gilbert or Tony Fuller, and certainly knocked material that has been published by Pat Zalewski into a cocked hat. However – and I want to stress this – I was enjoined to strict secrecy as to who owns it and where it is located – and the reason I was given was this:

The owner of this cache was afraid that, due to the overly-litigious nature of various Golden Dawn factions in recent years, one of them would try to engage the owner in an unseemly legal dispute over ownership.

I tried to re-assure the person who showed me the said cache that no modern organisation claiming to be the Golden Dawn has legal title to any of the property owned by the original order or the schismatic factions thereof. As far as I am aware, the Holy Order of the Golden Dawn closed in 1914; the AO was wound up in the 1960s; the last temple of the Stella Matutina was wound up in the 1970s; whilst Whare Ra broke away from the SM in the 1930s so it could not actually claim any property that had been owned by another SM temple. Hence, the current owner of the said trove probably has every right to hang on to it, and damn anyone who tries to come along with a writ.

This is probably a major reason why more archives of original Golden Dawn material are not resurfacing generally. Not because they don’t exist: but because the private collectors who have them in their possession have become disenchanted with all the law suits and wars of words fought between modern GD factions, and thus want to keep their heads below the parapet. In trying to validate their claims to trademarks – and their egos – these disputants have done irreparable harm to the cause of GD scholarship.

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September 15, 2010 · 1:57 pm

The Astrology of the Pope’s Visit To Britain

Courtesy of AstroDienst.com

Following on from my successes at predicting the outcome of the UK general election, and England’s chances in the world cup, I now present what I predict will occur when His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI arrives tomorrow for his state visit to the United Kingdom. This I have done by comparing the Pope’s birth-chart with the transits which are occurring at this time.

Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Alois Ratzinger) was born on 16th April 1927 at Marktl-Am-Inn in Bavaria, Germany, at 0830 local time. He is due to touch down in the UK at 1030 am (British Summer Time) tomorrow – 16th September 2010 – at Edinburgh International Airport. Inputting this data into AstroDienst.com I have come up with a chart with which one can compare the Pope’s birth chart (inner ring) with the transits occurring during the visit (outer ring) – see diagram.

Generally speaking in astrological terms, there is a currently Square aspect between three planets. Jupiter and Uranus are conjunct in Pisces: whilst Pluto squares both of them in Capricorn. What makes this interesting is that these three form a “T” with Pope Benedict’s ascendant – which itself is conjunct his natal Mars and Caput Draconis.

Uranus and Jupiter squaring his natal ascendant (etc) presages that Pope Benedict will manage to stir up a major incident of controversy or a crisis during this trip – relating to the nature of the his job as Pope. The Mars influence suggests that the Pope, blinded by overconfidence, will have an outburst of anger which will alienate a lot of people. The Caput Draconis influence indicates that this major incident will coincide with one of his public speeches which happens to be about a popular religious, philosophic, educational, or cultural trend.

We should not be surprised if Pope Benedict suffers some sort of accident involving physical injury during this visit.

As it happens, retrograde Neptune is conjunct his natal MC, and square to his natal Venus. The Pope may feel that he is in the middle of a career-crisis! The influence of his natal Venus is a strange one: were it not for the fact that the Pope is (supposedly) celibate, his chart would indicate now would be a good time for him to embark on a new love-affair!!

(This is what happens when you try to learn astrology from books intended for members of the general public, not the heads of major religions).

Pope Benedict’s apparent woes are reinfoced by Saturn transitting his 5th natal house. This indicates that he has issues over how deserving he is of attention from others, and he may feel unloved. (Compare this with the criticism that the Pope’s visit has been receiving from people such as Richard Dawkins, Peter Tatchell and Iain Paisley) However, the Pope also has a long-term opportunity to improve his standing and that of the church (nb: by long-term I mean it probably won’t occur during the duration of the visit itself, but only make itself apparent afterwards).

On the plus side, Pluto’s influence means that the Pope’s ambition and drive to succeed are incredibly strong now. He feels a compulsive need to achieve. The Pope may also find that some of the people he meets will turn out to be very important to him, and become hugely influential – even to the extent of presenting a new opportunity of mutual benefit to themselves and the Pontiff.

The conjunction of transitting Uranus & Jupiter with natal Mercury indicates that this is an auspicious time for the Pope to use his state visit as a public relations exercise. Specifically, he will find it easy to come up with new ideas, make decisions, deliver speeches, and generally put himself across. Also: his natal Venus, which is in his twelfth house (ruled by Mercury), will also be affected, so he will feel the need to promote and improve his relationships with others and to establish new ones as well. The internet and electronic-media will greatly help in this regard. I note that one of his plans is to visit a school assembly which will be broadcast live over the web.

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September 14, 2010 · 12:13 pm

The View From Halfway Up Mount Abiegnus

Imagine that you are in a room in a building, looking at an (opaque) ceiling. You are asked: “What does the roof look like?” What do you do? The obvious (at least to me) answer is that you find some way to get up to the roof, or otherwise take steps to see it from outside. What you do not do is reason like this: the room I am in is such-and-such, therefore the roof of the building must look like a logical continuation hereof.

It is a logical fallacy, of course, something like the gambler’s fallacy – thinking that something unknown will be like what you have experienced already, when in fact there is no reason at all why this should be so. The reason I bring this up now is that I look around the Golden Dawn community and this fallacious thinking when people try to speculate what the contents of the higher grades might be, or ought to be.

Consider this: the structure of the grades of the Outer Order of the Golden Dawn tend to follow a certain pattern: opening; being initiated into the paths leading to a sephirah; being initiated into the Sephirah; closing. (This is of course a generalisation, only three grades of the Outer Order are based on this model). If one were to believe that this represented a trend, a Philosophus, assuming he hadn’t read ahead, might be tempted to think that the next grade he was to experience would be structured like the Philosophus ceremony, but with the associations updated to Tiphereth as opposed to Netzach.

In fact, the Portal and the Adeptus Minor ceremony are nothing like that at all. If one did not know what the Adeptus Minor ceremony was, it would be impossible to guess at its nature purely based on what one has experienced up to that point. More to the point – it would also be impossible to guess (without being informed in advance) that the Adeptus Minor grade of the Golden Dawn has anything to do with practical magic. It could – for all that someone in the outer order knows – just be about more knowledge.

However, once one has experienced the new grade, and learnt its contents, one can convince oneself (rightly or wrongly) that it all makes perfect sense – using the benefit of hindsight. Speaking personally I can well appreciate the value of deliberately confounding someone’s expectations with each successive grade, because one can argue that a new level of consciousness deserves a new set of symbols.

For this reason it is useless to speculate what the contents of the higher grades ought to be, based on what one knows now (another logical fallacy: arguing from is to ought). For example, one could say that the higher grades are meant to examine the lower grades of the order, because that is what has been happening so far … or one could argue that they are meant to achieve something entirely different. After all there has already been at least one example of confounding expectations, so it might happen again, or then again it might not, it might instead be more of the same mutatis mutandur. There is no way, philosophically speaking, of telling.

For example, I have heard one example of arguing from the known to the unknown, that the grade of Adeptus Major is all about examining the Portal ceremony; the Adeptus Exemptus the 5=6; Magister Templi the 6=5; and Magus the 7=4.

HOWEVER, I could argue that the ultimate secret of the Golden Dawn is the existence of extraterrestrial life-forms, and hence the higher grades progressively introduce the initiate into contact and working with alien beings. Why not? There has already been one instance of one’s expectations being confounded so there is no logical reason to say it is or it isn’t likely.

Or again: I could argue that the founders of the Golden Dawn intended to introduce completely new material in the higher grades, e.g. stuff based on the more abstruse teachings of Theosophy – stuff which is not covered anywhere in the preceding grades. It might be possible, or it might not: we have no way of knowing. The problem lies in the fact that Mathers, Westcott etc went about founding the Golden Dawn in the wrong way. What they should have done was “invoked the highest first” and started with the Third Order, thus establishing the overall egregore, before finishing with the lower grades.

So my advice is: if anyone offers any speculation on the higher grades of the Golden Dawn whatsoever, be alert to whether they are trying to work out the appearance of the roof from looking at the underside of the ceiling – which is a polite way of saying to assume they are all talking bollocks.

PS: I have physically seen Westcott’s notebooks in which he was working out the higher teachings of Theosophy. 😉

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September 14, 2010 · 11:20 am

Re: Equinox Ceremony (Golden Dawn Group)

Lurking on Pat Zalewski’s Yahoo Forum, I have come to the conclusion: there are no innovations or new developments in the Golden Dawn!

I say this because the same subjects keep getting debated month after month: only the titles of the threads change. Heck, with only so many shopping days to go til Christmas, we will be probably going on about solstices soon enough!

Anyway: here is a prime example – a debate whether in the Golden Dawn it is a good idea to open the temple in the 0=0, then raise it to a higher grade, then lower it back down again afterwards. It was gone over last month, but in the context of opening and closing by sceptre.

— In golden-dawn-group@yahoogroups.com, “Martin Thibeault” <reaux.croix@…> wrote:

Aside from schedule conflicts, I am interested to hear how you would deal with the 0=0 Godforms invoked on the floor for the Opening and then invoking the ones for the Elemental Ceremony to follow. Would you invoke the 0=0 ones, leave them there then have Officers briefly leave Temple while the Hierophant invokes the Elemental ones? Would you `release’ the 0=0 ones prior to invoking the Elemental ones? If so would you re-invoke them for the closing at the end?

Given that Macgregor Mathers thought that the god-forms of the 0=0 were basically the same as those of the Outer Order generally but with  a few variations, this would be entirely reasonable: what’s more there would be no re-invocation because they are already there.

Of course – if on the other hand you subscribe to the rather sophisticated method of attributions set out in Rituals & Commentaries this would not be feasible.

It all boils down to what you consider authentic GD practice: the kind outlined in Mathers’ paper on the 1=10 ceremony, or what was done at Whare Ra.

See what I did there? I included a plug for two different Pat Zalewski books, so he’s in a win-win situation whatever the outcome of the debate! 🙂

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September 9, 2010 · 8:07 pm

Burn Da Herb, Not Da Quran

Burn Da Herb, Not Da Quran

So there I was, reading this story about this guy in Florida who says he is going to burn 200 copies of the Quran on the anniversary of the September 11th bombings this Saturday – in protest. This has of course brought world wide protest from just about everyone, Christian, Muslim and others, world leaders, and even General Petraeus who is concerned about the safety of his troops in Afghanistan.

I thought to myself – surely there must be something better to burn than the Quran? Obviously not one of the world’s Holy Books … aha – the Sacred Herb of Rastafarianism – Ganja! That is meant to be burnt! And, what is more, instead of stirring up hatred and discord, the act of burning Ganja will do the exact opposite. Result!

First I thought this was just a flippant idea, but then I thought this would be a good way to start an international peace movement. I have therefore founded a Facebook Group: Burn Da Herb, Not Da Quran, so that people can register their support.

I invite you all to click on the above link to join, and why not invite your friends to join as well? Thanks! 🙂

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September 8, 2010 · 10:17 am

Alex announces his candidacy for Director-General of OfPath

News today that scientists have created a machine that can convert thoughts into speech, with accuracy ranging from 70 to 90%. This is potentially good news for people in a state of paralysis who are not able to communicate by any other means. The bad news however is that it requires invasive surgery: it is reported that part of the patient’s skull was removed and sensors were inserted directly into the brain.

I have been covering the subject of telepathic research in this blog, and what strikes me is the amount of rapid progress that has been made in the course of less than a year. Just earlier this year I noted that a very crude machine-assisted telepathy might be possible through the use of fMRI scanners. This had the disadvantage of only being able to detect general categories of brain-activity (e.g. spatial awareness as opposed to linguistic awareness), but not specific thoughts. The advantage though is that an fMRI scanner is non-invasive – it works through the skull. However the new method is different – by taking an intra- as opposed to extra-cranial approach, scientists allege that they are able to distinguish the brain activity associated with individual words.

The speed of developments is such that we may well see a fully-fledged working version of artificial telepathy by as early as next year – or even sooner.

Unfortunately I have noticed another trend over the past year, as I have been covering the subject: as scientists get closer to developing artificial telepathy, so there are progressively louder cries from the nay-sayers who mention things like “Orwell,” “Big Brother,” “1984” etc. Now I admit it is certainly conceivable, now that it is within the realm of possibility … however instead of making a knee-jerk reaction, I suggest applying the lessons learnt from the invention of the Telephone.

Alexander Graham Bell, when creating the phone, did not stop to consider things like prank calls, nuisance calls, or government / police phone-tapping. However if these had been predicted at the time and people had objected as vehemently as the Orwell-fixated crowd are objecting to telepathic research, Bell would not have been able to complete his work. Yet we have managed to accommodate abuses of the phone system as they have developed: therefore I suggest a similar approach to the emergent field of artificial telepathy.

Hence, what I propose is that instead of banning research altogether, or coming over all civil-liberties and stuff, we institute an “Office for the Regulation of Telepathy” or OfPath for short. Needless to say, for its first director-general we need to appoint someone who sees the benefits of research, but at the same time is alert to the potential dangers – someone who is wise, intelligent, reasonably incorrupt, etc etc. In short – me! Henceforth I shall be campaigning to become the first director-general of OfPath (contributions to my campaign fund can be made by clicking the Alex Sumner Appreciation Fund Button). 😉

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September 6, 2010 · 2:07 pm

Z’ev Ben Shimon Halevi

The “Great Tree.”

To London on Saturday to attend a talk on the Qabalah by Z’ev Ben Shimon Halevi (which is the Hebrew name of an English gentleman named Warren Kenton). Interestingly enough it was being held at Dion Fortune’s place in Chalk Farm, London. We were even privileged to use Dion Fortune’s own temple room, though I understand this was only because it was a special occasion – the Society of the Inner Light’s Director of Studies told me they don’t usually let hoi polloi in there as it is “consecrated ground.”Anyway: Z’ev, who has mixed Sephardic and Ashkenazic ancestry, teaches what he calls the “Toledano tradition” of the Kabbalah, which is a particular form of the Sephardic school which derives from mediaeval Toledo in Spain. Z’ev said that he was first moved to study the Kabbalah after having lived in Toledo in a past-life. From what I can make out, the Toledano tradition is fairly similar to the conventional Kabbalah though with a few peculiarities such as their focus on the “Great Tree,” which appears to be a concatenation of the regular Tree of Life in the four worlds of Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah and Assiah (see picture).

I picked up the following tid-bits from Z’ev’s presentation:

  • Despite the Kabbalah being the mystical tradition of the Hebrews, its inner meaning is a Perennial tradition which has been known to different cultures at different times, even those unconnected with one another: e.g. China, Tibet, Babylon, etc. This is even shown in iconography from these regions which all purport to show variants of the Tree of Life.
  • The story of Noah’s Ark is metaphorical: the real Ark was in fact knowledge of the Kabbalah itself, whilst the various animals that were saved were particular aspects of that knowledge, which Noah managed to preserve for posterity. In that respect the Great Tree (left) was the blue-print for the Ark described in Genesis. (Alex thinks: Hmm, I wonder if the Royal Ark Mariners have ever considered this?)
  • Z’ev takes a curiously wary view of Angels. He used the metaphor of a corporation: God is the boss of the company; Man is the boss’ son; whilst the Angels are the boss’ employees. Thus whilst it is entirely possible that if one were to approach God directly, He would instruct one of His Angels to help: but an Angel would not necessarily be helpful if it were approached directly. In fact, according to Z’ev, an Angel might be downright troublesome. Z’ev took the view that if one asked an Angel to help, one might end up “paying with one’s soul.” At first this makes it seem that Angels are hardly any different from Goetic spirits: although by viewing angels this way it might explain why e.g. Enochian angels are often reported to be troublesome when invoked.
  • Z’ev believes in the existence of spirit guides – Maggidim – but avers that they are they are human spirits, rather than “Holy Guardian Angels” (this is probably connected with the dim view that he takes on Angels generally – see above). Z’ev himself claims that he is guided by the spirit of a Kabbalist who lived in the 11th century. He also believes that everyone has within their psyche an “Inner-Teacher” which is equivalent to Daath. From the way he described it, the Inner Teacher seemed to be equivalent to Freud’s notion of the Super-Ego.
  • Apparently, in every age at any one time there is an “Alpha-Qabalist” (Aleph-Qabalist?) living, who is like a Secret Chief, world teacher or Qabalistic version of the Messiah. The identity of this Alpha-Qabalist is always secret: he or she always keeps him-or-her-self to him-or-her-self. Z’ev was far too modest to hint in anything other than the mildest terms that it was himself! 😉

After lunch, Z’ev led those assembled on a Qabalistic pathworking exercise. From the ease with which he interpreted peoples vision-experiences I very much suspected that he had done this kind of thing many times in the past, and consequently knew every type of symbolism that commonly cropped up!

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